"It was tough," Gleeson said. "I suppose it’s one of those things that you have no prior experience in. I’ve never seen anyone die. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like. But [director] Alex [Graves] very kindly walked me through it. It was fun in the end, but kind of stressful to be so focused, but acting like you’re completely unfocused. Difficult, but exciting."

Another shock, aside from his character's death, is that Gleeson knew when he was going to die all along.

"I knew from Day 1. When I got the part, I read the first book. And before that, I Googled the character summaries," he said. "There will be a delight that the person tormenting their favorite characters is gone, but I would like to think there’s a certain sadness at the loss of the delight people take in hating a character like Joffrey."

Gleeson admitted that he now plans to retire from acting.

"I’ve been acting since age 8. I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to," he told EW. "And now there’s the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun. I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do."